Labeling Your Interface: Enhancing Feelings of Competence with Menus that Children (and Adults) Can Understand
Imagine if you were designing a really cool playroom for a young child. You want all aspects of this playroom to be accessible and usable, so they experience high levels of initial success and feelings of competence.
Let's begin with the first part of the experience -- the door. What kind of doorknob or latch would you choose? Why have a latch at all? Why not have a door that you can bump to open, that swings both in and out? Include a window, so children can see what's on the other side. You'd also want a latch that can't accidentally be locked, to eliminate the possibility of a child getting trapped in your room.
ARRANGE THINGS IN A CONTINUUM
Arrange time and space relationships in an order that makes sense to a three year old.
Easy to Hard:
Beginning to End:
Quiet to Loud:
KEEP THINGS ON ONE DIMENSION
Drawing on Piaget's notion of how preoperational and concrete operational children think about Arrange representations of content in one line instead of in a grid. In a calendar, for example, children have a much better time understanding just one week at a time, starting on Monday, and going to Friday. Showing them an entire 30 day grid requires abstract thought, and confusing the spatial relationships associated with the time (Monday is just a close in proximity to next Sunday).
Don't load a screen by repeating a sequence. Give children a sand timer that fills up when loading content.
SHOW CHILDREN WHAT ISN'T THERE, AS WELL AS WHAT IS THERE
Labels do their best work when the item that is being used is greyed out. Locked content is shown, so children can see how much "stuff" lies ahead in the experience. See Spore's timeline, as a good example.
INCLUDE BOTH PRINT AND ICONS
Make rollovers that include print or even verbal (spoken) labels. These could include realtime bilingual toggles.
Labeling Your Interface: Enhancing Feelings of Competence with Menus that Children (and Adults) Can Understand
Imagine if you were designing a really cool playroom for a young child. You want all aspects of this playroom to be accessible and usable, so they experience high levels of initial success and feelings of competence.
Let's begin with the first part of the experience -- the door. What kind of doorknob or latch would you choose? Why have a latch at all? Why not have a door that you can bump to open, that swings both in and out? Include a window, so children can see what's on the other side. You'd also want a latch that can't accidentally be locked, to eliminate the possibility of a child getting trapped in your room.
ARRANGE THINGS IN A CONTINUUM
Arrange time and space relationships in an order that makes sense to a three year old.
Easy to Hard:
Beginning to End:
Quiet to Loud:
KEEP THINGS ON ONE DIMENSION
Drawing on Piaget's notion of how preoperational and concrete operational children think about Arrange representations of content in one line instead of in a grid. In a calendar, for example, children have a much better time understanding just one week at a time, starting on Monday, and going to Friday. Showing them an entire 30 day grid requires abstract thought, and confusing the spatial relationships associated with the time (Monday is just a close in proximity to next Sunday).
Don't load a screen by repeating a sequence. Give children a sand timer that fills up when loading content.
SHOW CHILDREN WHAT ISN'T THERE, AS WELL AS WHAT IS THERE
Labels do their best work when the item that is being used is greyed out. Locked content is shown, so children can see how much "stuff" lies ahead in the experience. See Spore's timeline, as a good example.
INCLUDE BOTH PRINT AND ICONS
Make rollovers that include print or even verbal (spoken) labels. These could include realtime bilingual toggles.